Even though he kept goal in 774 League games, Dave Beasant is perhaps best remembered for a penalty-save in an FA Cup Final. He spent most of his twenties at Wimbledon when, in the space of seven seasons, the “Crazy Gang” yo-yoed between Divisions III and IV and then rapidly climbed, by 1986, all the way to the First. Two seasons later, they finished seventh in Division I, yet 33 points behind the champions, Liverpool, and were very much the underdogs when the two sides met in the 1988 Cup Final. In Wimbledon’s 1-0 win,

Beasant established two goalkeeping firsts for an FA Cup Final: by saving a penalty when he kept out John Aldridge’s spot-kick; and then by receiving the trophy.

And the following month, he broke the transfer record for a goalkeeper, when Newcastle paid £850,000 for him. He was soon back in London, though, for a spell with Chelsea, in which he was twice capped by England, as a playing sub for Peter Shilton. Early in the 1992-93 season, however, he was sidelined by Ian Porterfield and sent out on loan. Repatriated by caretaker-manager, David Webb, he missed the start of the next season after dropping a bottle of salad cream onto his foot. He was soon sold by Glenn Hoddle to Southampton, from whom Blackburn had just lured Tim Flowers.

Taking over from Ian Branfoot, Alan Ball initially kept faith with Beasant but then bought Bruce Grobbelaar. Dave nevertheless finished the 1994-95 season as first choice and missed only two games in 1995-96, when the fans voted him “Player-of-the- Year”. He suffered, though, from further managerial changes, as Graeme Souness signed Maik Taylor and Dave Jones brought Paul Jones from Stockport. A loan move to Forest, where he rejoined his old Wimbledon boss, Dave Bassett, was soon made permanent.

There followed a few nomadic years, in which he graduated from player, via player-coach and goalkeeper-coach, to a generic coaching role. He was 43 when his goalkeeping career ended at Brighton – although he remained registered as a player while coaching at Fulham, turning out for their Reserves and celebrating his 45th birthday on their first-team bench. A UEFA A-licensed coach, he also mentored Northern Ireland’s goalkeepers and was the senior goalkeeping-coach at Hoddle’s Academy in Spain until it closed in March 2011. He has since joined other ex-Saints, at Steve Wood’s Midas Sports Management. His Son Sam is also a goalkeeper who had a handful of games for Stevenage and Cambridge United as well as other non-league teams. In October 2014 Sam was injured so his father took his place on Stevenage’s bench v Carlisle, he didn’t come on but had he done so, at 55 would have been the Football League’s oldest-ever player.